Customer told me my dryer vent work was too clean to be safe

Had a guy last month in Phoenix insist I leave his lint trap partially clogged because he said perfect airflow was a fire hazard. Told me his brother's unit caught fire after a professional cleaning. I changed nothing about my process and he left a bad review. Has anyone else run into customers who want worse work done?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_karen1mo ago

Your customer might have had a point even if he came at it wrong. Clean vents can actually be a little too efficient in some older systems where the dryer was designed to work with some backpressure. But that doesn't mean leaving lint on purpose is ever the right answer. His brother's fire probably came from a different issue like a crushed hose or a bad lint screen, not from a cleaning that was too good. Most fires happen because dryers can't breathe, so better airflow is almost never the real problem. You did the right work, he just mixed up cause and effect.

dylanmurray22d ago

My uncle used to swear his old dryer worked better with some lint buildup and I kinda bought into it for years. But reading this breakdown really flipped a switch for me. The part about most fires being caused by hoses getting crushed or screens failing makes way more sense than blaming clean vents. I guess it's easy to latch onto the wrong detail when you're scared, especially after something as serious as a fire. You laid it out pretty clearly that better airflow almost never causes problems and that the guy just had his cause and effect backwards. Honestly, I'm gonna stop second guessing my own vent cleanings now that I've read this.

the_adam1mo ago

Wait, hold on. You're saying the customer's brother actually had a dryer fire? I just can't believe someone would be that stubborn after a family member went through something like that. You'd think the guy would be the first one in line for vent cleanings after that kind of scare, not arguing against them. Makes you wonder if he ever even talked to his brother about what really happened or if he just filled in the blanks himself. That's a whole new level of backwards logic to me.